CAIRO, Feb. 23 (UPI) -- Egyptian authorities accused lawmakers with the Muslim Brotherhood of using television appearances to incite people against the state, lawyers said.
A memo from a Cairo court said members of the Muslim Brotherhood who spoke in support of their detained colleagues were inciting people to rise up against the state.
Abdel Monem Abdel Maqsoud, a lawyer for the group, told Egypt's Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper that mounting pressure on the Muslim Brotherhood is a political move.
"This is a threatening message that indicates that the coming (election) period could see dramatic escalation," he said.
Mahmoud Ezzat, the deputy leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, and two senior officials in the organization were detained Feb. 7. Authorities accused the leaders of participating in banned political activity.
The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in 1928, becoming one of the founding organizations of militant Islam. It renounced violence in the 1970s, though a splinter group later joined al-Qaida.
Members of the Muslim Brotherhood won 20 percent of the seats in 2005 parliamentary elections running as independent candidates because they are banned from politics.
The organization claims the arrests are part of a broader crackdown against opposition parties ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for November.
